Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of the Joy at Home Podcast! We’ve got an interesting topic that we’re going to be discussing today… chicken keeping and yes, I am talking about real chickens. We are entertaining the idea of getting started in this area so I can’t wait to dive into this with our guest, Dalia Monterroso, also known as The President of Chickenlandia. She is a backyard chicken educator, entertainer, and author. When she’s not teaching in-person classes or doing seminars, you can find her on the popular YouTube Channel “Welcome to Chickenlandia,” her top-rated podcast “Bawk Tawk,” or her online course “Backyard Chickens 101: A Chicken Course for Everyone.” In 2023, Dalia published her first book “Let’s All Keep Chickens! A Down-to-Earth Guide to Natural Practices for Healthier Birds and a Happier World”.
It’s so fun to have a topic that’s truly new and different that has never been covered on the show before. In fact, nothing even remotely close to this has been covered on the show before. So before we dive into the good stuff, I am dying to share with you how Dalia got started in the world of chicken keeping.
From Entertainment to Chickens
This wasn’t a childhood dream of hers believe it or not. She grew up in the suburbs, her parents are from Guatemala and they didn’t keep chickens. Dalia was working in Los Angeles as a personal assistant, and wanted to be a writer and in the entertainment industry. She then met her husband, who is still in the entertainment industry as an aerial cinematographer. As they started talking about having and raising kids, they knew they wanted to move out of LA, and with her husband being Canadian, they ended up near the border in Bellingham, Washington. After their first son was a little over a year old, Dalia was suffering from postpartum depression. She felt like she really needed to have something for herself, something that was just hers. She loved being a mom but was also mourning the loss of her dream of being in show business. So, she started to think about getting chickens. She did the research, went to the farm store, and came home with 10 baby chicks.
As she was getting everything set up for them, she said that something happened, like divine intervention, where her heart opened up and a new dream came in. Dalia says that was the moment she started to heal. She became so passionate about it; it has become so much more than just chicken keeping. She was able to spend more time outside in nature, and she started connecting with her history and the history of humans in general. Now, though she didn’t expect it to be this way, she’s spreading a message of joy, peace, compassion, and love.
Chickens don’t care if you don’t feel good. If you want to stay inside and stare at your phone and lie in bed, they don’t care. They have to be fed, you have to connect with them. So even if Dalia was dealing with chronic pain or anxiety, she would still need to go outside. And she says that within a few minutes, she would feel lifted. She didn’t expect that at all but has been able to connect with them on a deep level, just as you would with a cat or dog. They depend on you and that relationship has become therapeutic for her.
Learning Opportunities
Dalia’s kids are 14 and 10 and help her with the chickens, especially if she has to go out of town. Getting our kids out in the sunshine and fresh air is so important and when you bring animals really of any kind into it, I think it is so good for our kids. Since we homeschool over here, I was curious about how keeping chickens could be an enriching adventure for kids whether they homeschool or go to public school. Dalia explained that it’s like a mini ecosystem. They have an opportunity to learn about nature, the dynamics of the flock, and their social structure. It’s also an opportunity to talk about how the chicken hierarchy relates to human beings’ hierarchy. If you do meat chickens, you can talk about that process and the nutrition that it gives to people, and what eggs can do for people. You can also talk about modern food production, and how it differs from what you’re doing in your backyard, and then just the history of how chickens have helped us to survive through the ages, and how they’ve given us meat and eggs and what that looks like. Also, of course, you can talk about the life cycle, illness, health, and even death. Also a plus for homeschool kids, if they need to step away or are feeling frustrated, they can go outside to the chickens for a change of scenery.
There are a lot of practical ways that kids of any age can use chicken keeping as a learning opportunity. They can collect eggs, feed the chickens, and for older kids, they can grow sprouts and be more involved with the dirty things like coop cleaning, and treating the chickens for mites and lice or other external parasites. They can also be a part of the learning experience, the research, and planning.
Why Start Chicken Keeping?
Dalia did a great job of sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly so I just had to ask…why is it worth it? She mentioned that first reason is learning compassion. If you feel angry, upset, or resentful, go hold a baby chick, because it’s impossible to have those feelings when you’re holding one. There is so much vulnerability being exchanged that it will really change your heart. And when you have a small child holding a chicken, it’s a great lesson on being gentle and learning to care for them.
Dalia also mentions learning to listen to your intuition. Because there will be a time when something will happen. But the one thing that she will always remind people about is that human beings have been keeping chickens for literally millennia; it is absolutely the most natural thing that we could be doing. And if we can take a moment and remember that and try and connect with that to figure out intuitively what is your heart telling you to do in that particular circumstance, that is a life skill.
The ultimate lesson that you can learn in the chicken yard is how important it is to connect with nature every single day, especially in the world that our children are growing up in right now. Even if we raise them completely away from electronics, they are still in this world and there will be a time no matter what, where they’re going to get pulled away from nature. So it’s so important to instill in children when they’re young the connection with nature every single day because they will remember that and they will take that with them into the world.
Where to Start with Chicken Keeping
If you’re thinking about taking the leap, Dalia does have a course. She said many people will get stuck in the research phase and there is a ton of conflicting information out there. It can be overwhelming and many will start out excited and then keep putting it off. She always tells people that humans have been doing this for thousands of years, it is in our DNA and you can do this! To make it easier, she says to pick a date and a set amount of time for research. Then, set a date for when you will actually go get your baby chicks or adult chicks. If it starts to feel complicated, just remember the basics. They need shelter, food, space, etc. Chickens are very adaptable. The main thing to remember is that you’re doing something that many people have done before you and that you can do it.
Just go for it!
Connect with Dalia!
